Controversy surrounds Seattle Mariners’ release of pitcher Randy Wolf

Why, after throwing well enough during spring training to make the team as a back-of-the-rotation starter, did veteran pitcher Randy Wolf ask for and receive his release this week from the Seattle Mariners?

As it turns out, according to reports, Wolf had a falling out of sorts with the club, stemming from the pitcher’s refusal to sign a contract waiver that would have granted the team the ability to release him without having to pay his salary. The 37-year-old southpaw is now voicing his displeasure at the Mariners’ business practices.

Veteran pitcher Randy Wolf, pictured above during his tenure with the Milwaukee Brewers, asked to be released by the Mariners rather than sign an advanced-consent release waiver. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Seattle signed Wolf in February to a minor-league contract that would have paid him $1 million assuming that he made the team. But, after a spring training that saw him pitch well enough to make the rotation, Wolf told reporters Tuesday, the Mariners asked him to sign an “advanced-consent release form” as a condition of making the squad — a move that would have allowed the team to demote or release him within 45 days and not be on the hook for his salary for the full year.

It’s easy to see why Wolf would view this as a questionable move. Seattle’s rotation is shorthanded to start the year with injuries to Hisashi Iwakuma and Taijuan Walker. Wolf is an experienced and dependable arm who has the ability to at least keep the team in games while Iwakuma and Walker rehab.

But asking him to sign the advanced-consent release form sure looks like a thinly veiled sign that the team planned to cut him — without pay — as soon as the other pitchers are able to return to regular action. Cold.

“I principally objected to (signing the form) because we negotiated in good faith in February on a team-friendly contract, if I were to make the team,” Wolf said, according to The Seattle Times. “To me that advanced-consent thing is kind of renegotiating a contract, so I told them I wouldn’t sign it and I disagreed with it.”

According to Deadspin, the waiver has been permitted under baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement since 1997 and is used to help teams protect themselves from risky minor-league contracts. Since Wolf underwent Tommy John surgery in October of 2012, the Mariners might argue that the waiver was a strategic step in protecting an investment in a 37-year-old pitcher coming off a major injury.

Wolf said that while he understands that the team is technically within its rights, the principle of the matter is what bothers him, especially after being under the impression that his contract was already decided.

“It made me feel uncomfortable. I had to take a stand and not accept that,” Wolf said, as reported by Fox Sports. “I just felt it was wrong. I understand that they were within the rules. I just felt it was not good business.”

The Mariners also released righty Scott Baker on Monday, meaning there’s a wealth of inexperience behind Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma in the rotation. Walker, James Paxton and Erasmo Ramirez — who figure to make up the rest of Seattle’s starting five — have a combined 170.1 innings of big-league experience among the three of them.

But the Wolf situation could be seen as yet another example of the type of questionable front-office moves that have marred the Mariners’ reputation in recent years. Trying to use a CBA loophole to alter the contract of a player you’ve already signed is a poor PR move at best, and could be seen by fans as an over-arching illustration of why the team has struggled to attract free agents and field a contending squad for over a decade.